Mark3:7-35 (12/01/24) | “the way” series SY24 @ PUNLA CoffeeTable (Episode 24S47)

Episode 24S47 Mark 3:7-35 ( 12/01/2024 written by Joy Abitria)

Hello everyone. I hope you managed to listen to the song titled “Living Sacrifice” by Chris Christian. This song tells us that as followers of Jesus, the best offering we can give to the Lord is ourselves, our entire life. Just as the Apostle Paul’s states in his letter to the Romans church found in Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.”

Let’s Pray

Last week we covered the part of the story of Jesus’ confrontation with the Jewish religious leaders regarding the sabbath. This week we will continue discussing the rest of Chapter 3 of Mark. Let’s listen first to Mark 3:7-35. We’ll use the TCB.

At this part of the story, we have a short account of Jesus performing healing within the vicinity of the Lake of Galilee. We also see in this account that he has a large crowd following him. At this point, his followers are from all over the parts of Israel as well as the neighboring regions & cities. He has followers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, Tyre, Sidon and regions across the Jordan (Decapolis).

We also see here that the unclean/impure spirits recognize Jesus as the “Son of God”.

11Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 

We also see here the account when Jesus selects the 12 Apostles.  But before we look further who are these apostles, let’s first talk about what an apostle is. The Greek word ἀπόστολος (ap-os’-tol-os) means a messenger, or one sent on a mission.

Here in Mark 3:14-15 we see that the selected 12’s purpose is to “be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” So who are these 12 apostles?

Here are the list of the 12 apostles named in the gospel accounts.

So what do we know about these apostles.

• Simon (Peter)
  • Fisherman, Andrew’s brother (Mat. 4:18)
  • Son of John, also called Kay-fas’ or Petros/Peter (John 1:42)
  • From the town of Bethsaida (John 1:44)
  • Attributed as the author of the letters 1^st & 2^nd Peter
• Andrew
  • Fisherman, Peter’s brother
  • Was a follower of John the Baptist, and upon hearing from John that Jesus is the Messiah he brought Peter to introduce him to Jesus (gospel of John)
• James son of Zebedee
  • Fisherman
  • named Boanerges which means “sons of thunder”
  • asked to call fire from heaven & destroy a town in Samaria when people did not welcome them (Luke 9)
  • The first of the 12 apostle that was martyred. Put to death with the sword by King Herod (Acts 12)
• John son of Zebedee
  • Fisherman
  • James’ brother
  • asked to call fire from heaven & destroy a town in Samaria when people did not welcome them (Luke 9)
  • Attributed as the author of the Gospel according to John, the Letters 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd John and Revelation
  • Was exiled in the island of Patmos
  • The only member of the 12 apostle that was not martyred (according to church traditions)
• Philip
  • From Bethsaida (John 1:44)
  • Told Nathanael that he found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph (John 1:45)
• Bartholomew
  • Most scholars today identify Bartholomew as Nathanael accounted in John 1:45-51
  • Implied that nothing good comes from Nazareth when Philip tells him that the Messiah is Jesus of Nazareth.
• Matthew / Levi
  • Similar account of Jesus’ call to the tax collector – in Matt. 9 the tax collector is named Matthew while in Luke 5 & Mark 2 the tax collector is named Levi
  • Son of Alphaeus (Mark 2:14)
  • Tax collector
  • Attributed as the author of the gospel according to Matthew
• Thomas
  • Also known as Didymus (John 20:24)
  • Doubted that Jesus has resurrected unless he touch Jesus physically (John 20)
• James son of Alphaeus
  • We don’t know much about this James, & we don’t have definitive information. Biblical scholars are divided on the identity of this James.
  • Church tradition refers to him as James the Less or James the Younger
  • May be a brother of Matthew/Levi per Mark 2:14 where Levi is referred to as the son of Alphaeus
  • May be a cousin of Jesus (Papias of Hierapolis / Jerome)
• Thaddaeus / Judas son of James
  • Many believe Judas son of James & Thaddaeus is referring to the same person (Luke 6:16).
  • Referred to as Lebbaeus, whose surname is Thaddaeus (KJV)
  • Not much is accounted in the scripture about this apostle.
  • Also known as Jude Thaddaeus (church tradition) however scholarship is divided whether this apostle is the same person who wrote the letter of Jude in the New Testament.
• Simon the Zealot
  • Assumed to be a former member of the Zealots. Zealots were a political movement in the 1^st century which sought to incite the people of Judea to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel the Romans from the Holy Land by force of arms.
• Judas Iscariot
  • Was responsible for the money bag (John 13:29)
  • The one who betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver (Mat. 26:15)

The members of this group are very interesting. There are the hot head fishermen (Peter, James & John), the hated tax collector Matthew, Simon the Zealot (zealots were violently opposed to Roman rule therefore hates tax collectors), doubting Tomas, and the money-hunger & betrayer Judas Iscariot. These individuals seem to be people that would not get along, at least at the beginning. However, Jesus taught these men and sent them out to preach His message about the kingdom of God.

Let’s talk about a bit of apologetics & address some bible critics and Christian disagreements regarding the apostles.

Bible Critique: The names of the 12 apostles are inconsistent

We have to remember that the bible that we are reading are translations and not the original language. Furthermore, we don’t have the original manuscripts. What we have are copies of these manuscripts, and it is known that there are discrepancies in these manuscripts. However, note that it is natural to have discrepancies when people copy any kind of writing even today. Also, note that it is also natural for the same person to have multiple names. Just like today, we have our first name, last name, middle name, nickname, & titles. It was also similar to the 1^st century, the Jews have Jewish and Greek names, they also have nicknames & titles.    

Christian disagreements: The 12 apostles are the only apostles.

The claim that these 12 are the only apostle is obviously not true base on the bible. If you remember the meaning of the word apostle – a messenger or one sent on a mission. Our key evidence is Paul who is not part of these 12 is also referred to as an apostle of Jesus Christ. We also have in the gospel accounts that Jesus sent 70 or 72 unnamed individuals to preach the gospel (Luke 10). I think in the Christian circle, we have made this word as some official title when it is simply a word that describes these individuals.  

Here in Mark 3:20-21, it is presumed that this event happened in Nazareth. Here we see that even His family think that Jesus is crazy.

20Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

In the next verse, the teachers of the law strike again and decide to accuse Jesus of being demon possessed. They said the only way He can do what He is doing is because the ruler of the demons is helping Him.  But this is another absurd accusation. Jesus is healing people not just casting out demons. The scribes are ignoring that. But Jesus has a perfect response, of course

22And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”

Next we see Jesus, telling a parable to address the accusation of the teachers of the law.

23So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. 28Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”

In this passage, Jesus calls out the accusation of the teachers of the law as nonsense. Satan does not want to oppose himself. Since Jesus is driving out demons so he is removing the power of Satan over the people, it is nonsense to think that he is allied with Satan. Also, in the parallel story accounted in Matthew 12:24-32 and Luke 11:14-22 Jesus asks this rhetorical question

Luke 11: 19Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 20But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Matthew 12: 27And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

In this passage in Luke & Matthew, Jesus highlights that the Pharisees’ accusation is unfair because if their disciples cast out demons accept that as power from God but when Jesus does the same thing, they accused him of doing it by the power of the demon. It is also interesting that here in the account of Matthew & Luke, denotes that the driving out of demons by the Spirit of God as a sign that the Kingdom of God has arrived.

Also, Jesus’ statement in verse 24 provides a profound wisdom that is applicable anywhere. In this account, Jesus is referring to the kingdom of Satan, however I think this can also be applied to the church. As Christians we say that we belong to the kingdom of God. Therefore, we should also be on guard and take heed of this warning about division. As individuals coming from diverse backgrounds, it is natural that we can have different perspectives, however as citizens of God’s kingdom, we should strive to workout these differences. Even if we cannot agree 100% on everything now, we should not be fighting each other, instead we should all be striving to search for the truth, because there is only one truth – the truth that God, that Jesus provides. I believe that if we continue to pursue the search for truth and learn from Jesus, He will lead us to all truth and all non-essentials and human doctrines that we argue about will fall by the wayside.

Also passage in verses 28-29, there are lots of debates out there on what it means especially the topic regarding unforgivable sin. However, looking at the context here, in my opinion, this is referring to when people attribute the power of God to the Satan. Instead of giving glory to God for the miracles, the people credits Satan.

Next scene is when the crowd tells Jesus that his family is looking for him but Jesus tells them who is His real family.

31Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” 33“Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. 34Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

It may seem that Jesus is being harsh to His family, but don’t forget that they were just saying that Jesus was crazy.   They are distracting Jesus from what He is trying to do. Jesus is all about doing the will of Father God. His true brother and sisters are the ones that do the will of God. The children of God do the will of the Father. Don’t forget Jesus is God but He is on a mission.  His family is trying to stop Him, so this is why He says His true family is focused on doing the will of God, not standing in the way of God’s will.

Let’s close and pray. 

Let me leave you with this today. As followers of Jesus, we must be on the mission to do the will of God. We should always be ready to do what God calls us to do in every aspect of our life – not just within the church walls but in everything and everywhere.

Don’t forget to do your homework for next week.  Read Mark Chapter 4.  See you next week.

Before we end. I want you to watch the music video of the song titled “Children of God” by Third Day. This song conveys the message that by acknowledging Jesus as our God and King, we also become children of God. Through the blood of Jesus, we are redeemed and we become part of God’s family. Thank you and may God Bless